Director's Project 2020: Poetry Winners

The Director’s Project included a poetry competition. About 50 students submitted poems in the fixed forms of Pantoum and Villanelle, inspired by both the Director’s Project brief and readings assigned by studio instructors. Read the winning poems below.

 

Winners ($250 each)
Ayesha Baig, 1st Year, Design, (Pantoum)
Estrella Carpio Pinto, 3rd Year Conservation, (Villanelle)
Leah Dysktra, 3rd year, Urbanism, (Pantoum)

 

Citations ($100 each)
Arik Abraham, 2nd Year, Design, (Pantoum)
Kiara Bramao, 3rd Year, Urbanism, (Pantoum)
Sophie Pritchard, 3rd Year, Design, (Villanelle)
Kris Taillefer, 3rd Year, Conservation, (Pantoum)

 

Shortlisted poems
Shirley Chung
Danielle Forget
Marco Gambetti
Katherine Kolody

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Past. Present… Future?
By Ayesha Baig

The world is in ataxia. Do not pretermit the fate of such a creation
as it is on brink of obsolescence.
We stand upon thundering grounds, our feet one in front of the other
on this tightrope of hope
Teary eyes glisten as they mirror the raging fires that burn the very
rope sustaining our masses
Oh! The melancholy of forgetting what had once been an earthly
paradise surges an ache, does it not?

We stand upon thundering grounds, our feet one in front of the other
on this tightrope of hope
Have you ever paused to hearken the cries of mother Earth? Have you
listened to her stories?
Oh! The melancholy of forgetting what had once been an earthly
paradise surges an ache, does it not?
Arrogance has shoved away the truth, deep in the ancient crevices of
the eroding promontory.

Have you ever paused to hearken the cries of mother Earth? Have you
listened to her stories?
Stories of the past, the peacefulness, the tales of yore. Do you wish
to reconcile or to ignore?
Arrogance has shoved away the truth, deep in the ancient crevices of
the eroding promontory.
She’d tell them slow, repeating parts as she went as if she expected
us to remember each one.

Stories of the past, the peacefulness, the tales of yore. Do you wish
to reconcile or to ignore?
Listen to her stifled laments. She mourns for us, for the very future
we have inexorably jeopardized
She’d tell them slow, repeating parts as she went as if she expected
us to remember each one.
The world is in ataxia. Do not pretermit the fate of such a creation
as it is on brink of obsolescence.

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A Changing Border
By Estrella Carpio Pinto

We crossed the waters towards her,
A new land began a captive story,
Told in this guide of old borders

What looked like our service disguised as our torture,
As we sought to maintain our histories,
For we unwillingly left across the waters, for her

Even today we are looked at as if we cause disorder
on this land, they already set our role for us
using this outdated manual of old borders

Frontiers are more than just tangible separators
They create segregations in the minds of individuals
These heavy waters need to be crossed to save her

And still, she weeps over these horrors
This belief in the notion of superior, inferior:
Words in the palimpsest of old borders

No more destruction to the upsetting sculptures
Let them stand and face the reality of their past
Now these freed waters speak for her,
“Abandon this palimpsest of the old borders.”

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Living on the Other Side of the Divide
By Leah Dykstra

This is for those who are being kicked to the other side of the street.
For those whose blood sweat, and tears are the dwellings of their neighbors,
Yet in their dreams is the only place that comfort and stability meet
They are on the divide and only brought over for their manual labor

For those whose blood sweat, and tears are the dwelling of their neighbors
Never given the time of day as they have defining labels
They are on the outside, only brought over for manual labor
Building up the city but staying in stables

Never given the time of day as they have defining labels
Treated as “An infection and invader to whom the city gives no consideration”
As they build up the city and only stay in stables
Reliance on family must be there foundation

Treated like “An infection and invader to whom the city gives no consideration”
The urgency of now pushes them further from their nation
Reliance on family must be there foundation
Yet, this change in connection, brings a new form of segregation

As the urgency of now pushes them further from there nation
And they are kicked to the other side of the street
The change in connection, brings a new form of segregation,
In their dreams is the only place that comfort and stability meet.